Cold weather caused crop destruction in countries that export vegetables to Britain, which caused a significant price increase | North African countries also suffered from the same phenomenon
A combination of particularly wintery weather and rising prices, resulting from the inflationary crisis affecting the UK, is causing a substantial shortage of fresh vegetables, which has already been dubbed the “salad crisis” of Britain, the Guardian newspaper reports.
The consumer price index for last February rose to 10.4%. The reason for the increase in the index is due to an increase in the prices of fresh food, eating in restaurants as well as drinks, which has a negative effect on the index.
The weather destroyed the crops of the European countries and caused a decrease in the amount of vegetables reaching the consumer – which leads to a drastic increase in prices. Due to this, the price of vegetables increased by 18% in February. This was announced by the Office for National Statistics of Great Britain (ONS).
The countries of North Africa, including Spain, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia, which are responsible for about 80% of the salad vegetable crops and are the countries that export the vegetables to the UK, were affected by cold temperatures that destroyed the vegetables and there was also an increase in prices.
The serious shortage resulted in retailers such as ‘Tesco’ and ‘Aldi’ starting to limit purchases of vegetables or fruits such as raspberries, broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.